MARGINAL VICTORY
by Scifibug
Summary: I'm starting this series at the end. A platoon of Colonial Marines and their last minutes. Rated for language.


MARGINAL VICTORY

By Scifibug

Final Chapter Colonial Marines Saga, Aliens Multi-Universe

They appeared in the valley like some magic trick from hell. One second the valley was empty, the next a billion drones popped out of nowhere.  
We had located the nest at the end of a valley between some steep hills. My first inclination was to drop a couple of hundred of kilotons of nukes on it until it resembled a glass desert. But it seems like the bugs built their home next to a corporate facility of some sort. Never did find out why it was so important or what it was for, but the captain decided we were going to defend it until the (still unnamed) corporation transports arrived to move it. The Cocksucker and the Icequeen┘ Sorry I mean the Captain and the Corporate Representative; will direct the operation from the frigate. The Co was no loss as we never heard from them once this all started, but if I'd had my choice I'd be there and have them here.  
The dropships pumped missiles and rockets into the spots we thought the bugs were exiting from but it was like throwing rocks into a river, the holes the warheads created were quickly filled in by more bugs.  
The two laser sentry guns started playing their beams along the front ranks of the horde. Hundreds of the creatures fell as the processors of the guns went into riot control mode due to the huge number of targets and started cutting the legs out from under the creatures. The ones behind just rolled over the fallen like a black chitinous wave.  
By now they were half way to us. Svetlana was hitting them with ramjet rounds from her sniper rifle. She had hoped to bag a queen, but so far all she had was thousands of drone warriors as targets. She did bag a few of the more ambitious bugs, but it was mostly aim and fire, repeat. Her specialized skills little use in this field of slaughter.  
The bugs were three-quarters of the way through the valley. My squad launched its SADAR missiles as the two grenade launching sentry guns sent round after round of high explosive shells into the nightmare multitude. The mass rippled then became a solid host of death again.  
10X28mm explosive tipped armor-piercing caseless rounds poured into them from the platoon's smart guns and the last four sentry guns. Both the robots and gunners sprayed fire across the bug's front line mechanically. Solid streams of death hosing into them and they didn't even slow down. One by one the weapons began to jam because of the heat of their firing.  
The gunners couldn't take time to try to clear their weapons; the bugs would be swarming over us by then, so they just dropped the steaming guns and grabbed spare pulse rifles and continued firing as the bugs hit the fragmentation wire and the mines.  
This is where the bugs showed that there was some sort of intelligence at work. The first bugs hitting the wire fell down upon it becoming bridges for the ones behind. When a bug hit a mine the rest flowed into the hole created in our defenses.  
That was how they got the dropships, waited until one of the ships dipped low on a firing run then two of them would grasp a third and toss her at the damn ship. I didn't see the first on go down, just noticed we were one less all of a sudden, but I did see the second get the Jiltin' Jenny. While reloading one of my last clips I took a second to look around and see how we were doing. I wish I didn't.  
The Jenny dipped down to strafe a place where the bugs were bunching up. I swear to god this bug flew up like a superhero in an old time mangas. It latched itself onto one of the stub wings and crawled up to the canopy. The flight tech saw it first. It looked to me her pistol cleared her holster just as the damn creature punched through. The Jenny went nose up, and slid toward the ground and her tail hit the ground. She exploded as she fell onto her back hard.  
The RPG's were firing as fast as they could be loaded and the sound of pulse rifles firing was continuous. Chug's PiG was devastating them but it could only kill so many before it needed to recharge.  
As they swarmed and leaped over our line we used flamethrowers, grenades and pistols. The LT yelled for us to fallback and we tried to make it to the APC's to make our last stand, only to find the bugs were already there and both APC's were burning.  
The LT went down with her pistol shoved down a bug's throat and her Ka-Bar in the side of its head, screaming like a banshee. My back hit the wall just as my pistol clicked on a dry chamber. I threw it at them but it fell short. The bugs had stopped moving.

I mean just stopped.

They crouched in a semi-circle about five meters all around us. I took the chance to see who was left.

There were just three of us left standing. Svetlana the sniper, Wo-jo something-or-other the virgin, and me.  
Wo-jo looked scared shitless.  
Svetlana chest was heaving like she was out of breath, her long red hair I used to bitch her out about was loose and streaming in the breeze. I could tell she was fuming because she didn't get her queen. I leaned toward Wo-jo's attitude. If I wasn't so thirsty I'd pissed myself. I was wondering what the bugs were up to when I heard it.  
Actually felt it though the souls of my combat boots before I actually heard the tramp of doom approaching. I now know how our rodent ancestors felt when a T-Rex passed close.  
As she topped the rise I saw that she was huge. She was the easy the size of a dropship and moved with the fluid motion of a machine from hell. The queen had come to collect her prize.  
Wo-jo fell down in a faint. I was glad because he wouldn't feel what was coming next. Svetlana and I glanced at each other. I don't know how I looked, but she had a smile on her face as she and I reached into our combat vests and pull out the small device the LT had given every veteran NCO just in case she didn't make it this far.  
The queen twigged something was up and hissed for her children to move in just as we pushed down on the plungers. The ten 25kt nuclear demolition units we buried around the valley would eradicate most if not all of the nest. I let Svetlana push her detonator down a tenth of a second before I pushed mine.

Svetlana got her queen.


End file.
